These pages are dedicated to one of the greatest achievements
of English Renaissance drama, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. Here
you will find the complete text of the play, with links in each scene to notes
and commentary.

In researching for notes,
several editions of the play were consulted, including those edited by John
Russell Brown, Jonathan Dollimore, David Gunby, Dennis Huston, F. L. Lucas, and Trevor Millum.
The most recent edition consulted was by Leah Marcus (Arden, 2009). The production history by Kathleen McLuskie and Jennifer Uglow (Plays in
Performance series, Bristol Classical Press, 1989) was also helpful.

A note on the text: The first quarto of The Duchess of Malfi published in 1623 does not carefully distinguish between lines of poetry and prose. Webster's verse is very irregular and not always easy to recognize. This webtext does not attempt to make these fine distinctions; for a modern edition which does, see the Arden version edited by Leah Marcus (2009).

Photos are from a 1998
production at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN directed by Dr. Larry Brown
with Laura Brewer as the Duchess, Jason Miller as Bosola, Wes Driver as Ferdinand,
Andrew Talbert as the Cardinal, Chris Hughes as Antonio, Rachel Holman as Julia,
Duff Harris as Death.

“Webster
was much possessed by death and saw the skull beneath the skin.” -- T. S.
Eliot